Monday 2 February 2009

RAFA COULD REGRET ROBBIE RETURN


SO he's gone - five 90-minute appearances, six months, seven goals and eight million quid down the swanny.

What an absolute joke.

If anything has been handled as badly as the Robbie Keane saga in the history of Liverpool Football Club, I'd like to know what it is.

I feel sorry for Keane. On the whole, his performances frustrated me when he pulled on the Red shirt. But no-one can argue that he was given a fair crack of the whip.

And while his goals tally was highlighted over and over, he was actually bought to sit in behind the main striker - Fernando Torres.

Torres, of course, has been crocked three times with a hamstring injury. Leaving Keane, when he was given a sniff, playing out of position, leading the line, and, crucially, not playing with Torres.

Rewind to the Goodison derby, when Torres destroyed our beloved neighbours with a devastating performance.

That was due, in no small part, to Keane, who linked superby with the Spaniard, creating space, setting up a goal, and looking somewhere near worth the £20million shelled out back in August.

But with Torres out, Keane looked lost, his confidence dipped and he clearly got frustrated by getting the hook every time he started a game.

With Xabi Alonso playing so well, Rafa reverted to his favoured Gerrard behind Torres formation and that was that - no place for Keane.

Then there's the boardroom battles. The accusation that Keane became the political pawn with the story going that Rick Parry paid over the odds for him, scuppering the Gareth
Barry deal and annoying Benitez in the process.

And so his sale is one up for Rafa in that long, boring power battle that can only end with one of them leaving.

As I have said before, all that to me is by the by - I'm interested in the footie.

And footie-wise, we've been left with our kecks round our ankles. How can you possibly push for a title with one decent striker?

Amazingly, that's the situation we find ourselves in.

Torres is, undoubtedly, a world-class striker. And on Sunday he showed he is again approaching his best.

But he's been dogged by injury. Touch wood it's the end of his problems for this season. But imagine the worst-case scenario - he gets injured.

So what are the options?

David Ngog? At best he can be described as raw. Dirk Kuyt? Well, his purple patch seems to be over in front of goal and he does OK in his current right midfield role.

Then there's Ryan Babel - not the kind of man you want to be putting faith in. He's let us down too many times already.

The point is - we've left ourselves short. Whatever you thought of Keane, he would offer something more to the squad than what we are left with.

Once the deal went through, I sat watching the countdown to the deadline.

I knew nothing was going to happen - there are no surprises when it comes to football transfers anymore.

But I couldn't help hoping for a David Speedie style signing. Or a Ronny Rosenthal. But no - nothing.

And when I cast my eye over the deals done in the transfer window one thing stood out - we are the only team in the top six whose squad is actually WEAKER than it was when the window opened on January 1.

We've let Pennant go, and now Keane.

Manchester United - who have infinitely more talent available to them anyway - signed Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic.

Chelsea signed Ricardo Quaresma, Villa signed Emile Heskey, Arsenal have probably signed Andrei Arshavin and Everton got Jo.

The best chance to win the league in many years and you reduce your options with three months to go. Madness.

Oh, and guess who our last league game of the season is against? Yep...Tottenham. You know what I'm thinking. You can get 5-2 if you fancy it.

NOT SO HOT-SHOTS...FIVE THAT FLOPPED


Robbie Keane isn't the first front man to arrive at Anfield with a big reputation and leave with his tail between his legs. How about these less-than-prolific front men?

ERIC MEIJER: The 6ft 3ins Dutchman joined in 1999 from Bayer Leverkusen. Mad Eric made 27 appearances and managed just two goals which came in a 5-1 win over Hull in the Carling Cup. He did, however, go on the lash with the Liverpool fans before the 2001 Uefa Cup final in Dortmund - still got a picture of me with him somewhere!

NIGEL CLOUGH: Fondly remembered for two goals in the 3-3 draw with the Mancs but the 1993 signing from Nottingham Forest never managed to hit the heights on a regular basis. Burdened by the famous number seven shirt and dubbed "the new Kenny Dalglish", expectations were far too high. Seven goals in 39 games.

EL HADJI DIOUF: Ten million quid, crap hair, first No.9 in Liverpool history to go a season without scoring. And he was a tit.

SEAN DUNDEE: A striker, that's not a striker...THAT'S a striker. 'Mick' was useless - slow with no skill, he is in with a good shout of being the worst player ever to turn out for the Reds. He played three games as a sub. Three games too many. On signing (for £2million) he actually said the following words: "I’ve always been the quickest player at every club I’ve been at, but I hear Michael Owen is pretty quick so we’ll see…” Ha ha ha...

DJIBRIL CISSE: Fourteen million quid, crap hair and he was tit - ring any bells? To be fair, he wasn't in the Diouf class. But he must have missed school the day they taught offside because he played like he'd never heard of it. The linesman used to leave the pitch with an arm like Popeye when he was playing. Jamie Carragher was once asked if his son was any good at footie by a colleague of mine. I think Carra's kid was about four at the time and he answered: "Well he's better than Cisse!"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't know what you're on about - I thought we looked excellent tonight at the end when Gerrard and Torres were both off the pitch. Nothing to worry about at all.

Back in the real world, if they are crocked, and they were both limping, Benitez will have to play Kuyt on his own up front.
That means the 11 players on the pitch if Gerrard and Torres are out will have scored 14 league goals between from 24 games.
Going back to when we were a decent side, we often had four players getting into double figures with league goals.
In our great 79-80 season, we had Dalglish, Johnson, McDermott manage it with Ray Kennedy getting nine.
Rush, McDermott, Dalglish and Whelan did it in 81-82
Rush, Walsh, Molby, Whelan in 85-86
And so it goes on (John Barnes got 22 league goals in 89-90).
The point is that in all of those years at least two midfielders banged in plenty of goals and that just doesn't happen now.
Look at the shower we've got:
Albert Riera 2 goals in 20 league games
Xabi Alonso 14 in 132
Yossi Benayoun 6 in 50
Lucas 0 in 32 (in danger of taking Paul Stewart's title as our worst ever midfielder)
Mascherano 1 in 46 (I know it's not his job but McMahon scored 29 in 204)
Ryan Babel 6 in 47
It's too easy to stop us scoring, even Everton can do it.
...and you just know Villa will beat them in the next round.

Sorry about the rant but I'm stuck on a train!

Dave Molyneux said...

Your comments seem to be justified after last nights result skipper. Gerrard goes off injured & Torres looks well off the pace with no one to replace them except Brian Rabble!! No matter how bad Keane may well have been for us, he is still a damn sight better than some of the reserves we have and he has bags of experience!!! I don’t know weather Rafa is cutting his nose off to spite his boss, but one thing is (for sure) it’s a big mistake not replacing Keane, big mistake.

As for last night, that pile of hoad Lucas has gone from being a pile shit to a fucking liability!!!! I’d love to know who it was who said he could play footy? What Rafa sees in him is way beyond anyone’s comprehension!! Brazil’s under 21’s Captain or Brazil’s Under 21’s Captain of the fucking paraplegic team? Joke!

And finally, does anyone know if Everton fans have actually got any songs about themselves or are they all just about us? Taking after their ‘bezzies’ down the M62 if you ask me: obsessed with us!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Good blog that Alan lad

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